When Gary Nicholson, conductor of the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony, first announced what our major project would be for the second semester, I admit that I wasn’t overly thrilled with playing the Shostakovich Fifth Symphony. At the time, I viewed the composer as one who drifted in limbo between the romantic era of classical music, which has long been my favorite genre, and the contemporary age, which I detested for

The harsh rays of the desert sun beat down relentlessly upon the armored and armed men that rest at the borders of Israel. For the moment, the field is quiet, devoid of violent weapons fire. The soldiers sit within their camps, their weapons resting by their sides. An easy air of camaraderie drifts throughout the base. Upon each of these warriors’ shoulders weighs an immense weight that Israel has borne